Causes of High Testosterone in Women

High testosterone in women is one of the most common hormone disorders. Literally tens of millions of women suffer from it in the United States alone.

You may suffer from high testosterone (or other male sex hormone) levels if you have acne, if your menstrual cycles are irregular, if you experience blood sugar swings, if your libido is low, if you have male pattern balding on the top of your head, or if you have male pattern hair growth on your face or elsewhere. These are some of the main symptoms.

There are many different things that can cause high testosterone in women.

The most common causes are:

High testosterone in women 1. Insulin resistance and diabetes

If you have type I or II diabetes or know that you are insulin resistant, high testosterone is quite possibly a problem for you.

Approximately  25% of the testosterone in female bodies comes from the ovaries. This is natural. However, insulin in the bloodstream stimulates the ovaries to produce more testosterone. This can seriously increase the ovaries’ output of testosterone.

Depending on the severity of the dysregulation, insulin can lead to a significant increase in free testosterone in the bloodstream. Sometimes this is as much as 2 or 3 times as much testosterone as is optimal or healthy.

This is very often the case in polycystic ovarian syndrome – more on which below.

High testosterone in women 2. Thyroid disorders

Sex hormone levels and thyroid hormone levels are intimately related in many ways.

One important way is through Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG). When thyroid function slows — as in hypohyroidism — Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) levels fall. SHBG binds excess hormones to it in the blood. It is incredibly important for maintaining healthy hormone balance. When hormones like testosterone threaten to increase, if there is bountiful SHBG then it can bind the testosterone and minimize it’s threat. Without SHBG, excessive hormones can become a real problem.

In healthy women, 80% of testosterone is bound by SHBG in the blood. With decreased SHBG however, significantly more testosterone runs free and causes testosterone-related issues.

High testosterone in women 3. Stress

Stress can have a wide variety of negative impacts on the female body. Many of these have the potential to elevate testosterone levels.

For example, stress can cause hypothyroidism and the concomitant decreases in SHBG.

Stress can also decrease levels of estrogen and progesterone in the blood. Estrogen and progesterone perform a counter-balancing function to testosterone. Without them, testosterone levels can rise to unhealthy levels.

Stress also causes a rise in DHEA-S, which is a male sex hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It is not testosterone – but it is one of testosterone’s closest cousins. It acts in a chemically similar way and will often cause the same hormone disruptions. Read more about this process here, and about how stress negatively impacts hormone production here.

High testosterone in women 4. Fasting after workouts

If you work out frequently and do not eat afterwards, your testosterone levels – as a woman, specifically – can rise unchecked.

After intense exercise, several hormone levels are elevated. Cortisol – the “stress hormone” – and testosterone are two of the strongest.

Cortisol levels fall naturally after a workout. But testosterone levels do not. They remain very high and decrease much more slowly if you do not eat afterward. If you do this on a regular or even daily basis this can cause a chronic problem.

I discuss how precisely to refuel in this post: how fasting after workouts causes high testosterone, acne, and PCOS.

High testosterone in women 5. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

Finally, the most common cause of high testosterone in women in PCOS.

Now, it is not altogether clear what causes what: does high testosterone cause PCOS, or does PCOS cause high testosterone? No one is quite certain.

But what is certain is that the two are inextricably linked for many women. It may very well be the case that they both cause each other: high testosterone causes PCOS and PCOS causes high testosterone.

PCOS stands for Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome and is the condition of having multiple cysts on one’s ovaries. There are three criteria used in diagnosing PCOS. In order to be diagnosed you must meet two of the three criteria: irregular or absent menstrual cycles, elevated testosterone or other male sex hormone levels, and cysts on the ovaries as demonstrated by an ultrasound.

PCOS affects as many as 15% of in America today, and is actually the leading cause of infertility, by a long shot.

So if you suffer from symptoms of high testosterone, from any of the above conditions such as hypothyroidism, stress, or insulin resistance / diabetes, you may want to investigate PCOS as a potential underlying cause or secondary effect of your condition.

PCOS may be a complex condition but this does not mean that it is insurmountable. I myself overcame my own PCOS (despite receiving terrible medical advice). So many of the women I have worked with on the issue have, too.

To read more of my work on PCOS and find out how its unique from what other people have done, check out any of these posts: What is PCOS? PCOS Treatment Options, The PCOS Diet, or my program on overcoming PCOS, PCOS Unlocked: The Manual.

 

 

So that’s it for common causes of high testosterone. Do you have other ones in your own experience? Questions, concerns? I’d love to hear about it – please let me know!

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